| Thursday, November 30, 2006 |
| Pre-review / my early thoughts on Oh! Gravity. |
So I just got "Oh! Gravity." in the mail three hours ago and I've been listening ever since. What follows are my initial thoughts.
"Yesterdays". I'm listening to it right now actually. Its incredibly powerful. It made my eyes fill up a bit and my vision blurry. But thats probably 'cause I identify with the song in a very personal way. Its very tastefully produced. If songs can make you cry, there's a good chance this one will.
"4:12" is one of the most original sounding songs I've heard in a long time, one of my favorites on the record. "Circles" is just epic, 'nuff said. Everyone points out the Motown-ness of "Amateur Lovers" (rightly so), so I'll suffice to say it has a great spaced-out bridge that has some Led Zeppelinesque moments. Its priceless to hear Jon go "popopopopoprofessional!" in tandem with the climaxing music, towards the end. "Head Over Heels", "Burn Out Bright", "Faust"... just, wow. "American Dream"'s bridge rocks out like I never envisioned a Switchfoot song would. That whole song plain rocks. "Let Your Love" is the only song that I can't say anything about yet 'cause it skips on the CD (though the MP3 version doesn't skip, so I'm gonna burn it on CD and listen to it on my speaker system before I pass judgement.) But I know that song is gonna be incredible, it was one of my favourites from the 1-minute clips, and the live recording of it gave me goosebumps, so I can't wait to hear it with the lights out and candles lit.
"Awakening", as its arguably the most hyped song on the album--the song fans seem most eager to hear--deserves some special attention here. Its a great song-- arena-worthy, irresistable with its soaring heavy metallic guitar riff and rousing chorus. I would hate to pick such a good song as the weakest on the album (because its by no means weak), so I'll just say every other song is stronger. I say this because, while most of the other songs explore fresh territory to great effect, "Awakening" retreads the well-beaten anthemic path that Switchfoot's known for (also to great effect.) It has a standard verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus structure (that I'm not an instant fan of)--so I can see it being the radio-loving fan's favourite. Those whose favourite Switchfoot album is The Beautiful Letdown will love the clean, polished sound of the song, not to mention its positivity. So, while it may not show as much musical progress as the other tracks, it's made to be a classic Switchfoot anthem, as its very catchy and just sounds great, especially the grinding guitar riff. Rather than belittling "Awakening", it just goes to say how great a record this is, if such a good song as "Awakening" is what I'd come up with if asked "what's the weakest song on the album?"
I don't often say this about albums, but I honestly feel every song on this one is excellent, many of them reaching for greatness. I can't think of a better modern rock album, and I'm well aware that that's a big statement. If you thought their previous albums were diverse in their sound, this will redefine 'diverse'. The variety is astounding, I really haven't heard a more diverse alt-rock record.
The raw, honest, ocassionally-garage sound of this album, with its experimental forays, might take a few listens to grow on you, if the lush, production-heavy sound of The Beautiful Letdown and Nothing is Sound is what first got you into Switchfoot. Mind you, this album by no means sounds underproduced or rushed, but the production is just very carefully and extremely well done. The production team seems to have taken care to ensure the album retains an intimate rawness that previous Switchfoot albums lacked. The guys joking around at the end of "Amateur Lovers" is a welcome throwback to the style of the early Switchfoot albums--it makes you feel like you're right there in the room with them. If Nothing is Sound didn't follow a "safe" path lyrically, this one, to my absolute delight, strays away from the "safe" path musically, and the result is something gleefully authentic.
Oh, if there's one thing that I didn't like-- the last 10 seconds of the radio version of "Oh! Gravity." is missing in the album version. You know, that amusing part at the end where Drew or someone sings "why can't we.. mmm." That was classic. Should've been on the album. My guess is they took it out 'cause they didn't wanna let up the intensity while transitioning from "Oh! Gravity." to "American Dream". And I thought its interesting that the album version of this song is actually shorter than the radio edit, by 10 seconds. Never seen that happen before. Another interesting fact, for those who haven't heard it mentioned before: The song 4:12 is 4 minutes and 12 seconds long.
To conclude, this one sounds so good I find myself wondering what to make of it... is it really as good as I feel it is? Am I jumping the gun? Time will tell if this is my excitement talking, or if this is really one of the best albums of our time... though I do have a hunch about what time will tell. Hopefully I'll be able to come up with an answer to those questions when I post the less ramble-y, more organized, "official" review, after many more listens over many more days. So watch this space. Thanks for reading.
[PS: I've avoided discussing "Oh! Gravity." and "Dirty Second Hands" as these songs have been out for a while now. In case you wish to read my reviews on these, they're on iTunes' main page for either track, where the Top 3 reviews are featured, under the name Phil*mon Thomas.]Labels: album reviews. |
posted by phil @ 7:45 PM  
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| 6 Comments: |
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great review! how'd you manage to get a hold of a copy so early? i understand what you mean by awakening. dont worry it wasnt horribly confusing, i got what you were going for. :)
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That was awesome! I'm so excited. (:
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Phil, I'm so glad to hear you finally got it, I'm excited for you. I am greatly upset that Oh! Gravity is missing the Drew Crooning part at the end...I was really looking forward to that. I'm hoping that's a listening party defect or something along those lines...
LYLBS is already my favorite song, it just hits home, so does yesterdays...but I'm pretty sure the song I most identify with is Circles. I love the synth in there, it's just enough to take you over the edge.
Love,
Rose
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how do you manage to do this everytime!? :P
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this excites me greatly..can't wait for a full review. ;) even moreso I can't wait to have the durn thing in my hands!
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GREAT review Phil ;)